Globalfoundries expands in Germany

Globalfoundries plans to expand its global semiconductor manufacturing operations with a series of new projects across its 300mm operations designed to support expected increases in both near-term and long-term customer demand. At the company's Dresden manufacturing campus, Fab 1, the expansion focus will be on adding new capacity to support additional growth opportunities for 45/40/28nm technologies as well as initial 22nm development. This expansion will see a new facility constructed at Fab 1 that will add nearly 110,000 square feet of clean room space to enable the site to scale output up to 80,000 wafers per month over the next two years. The first output from this new expansion is expected in 2011 with construction work planned to start immediately. The start of this expansion project at Fab 1 is, however, still subject to the approval of a state aid package by the German authorities and the European Commission. To support long-term growth at the 22/20nm generation, Globalfoundries plans to expand Fab 8, the company's new fab currently under construction at the Luther Forest Technology Campus in Saratoga County, New York. The expansion will increase the size of the cleanroom shell by approximately 90,000 square feet, bringing the total available cleanroom space to approximately 300,000 square feet. Work on the shell expansion is expected to begin later this month pending final approval of an investment agreement with Empire State Development Corporation and the State of New York. The total facility, including cleanroom support infrastructure and office space, includes more than 1.3 million square feet of space and is expected to come online in 2012 with volume production targeted for early 2013. The larger cleanroom would allow for the future fit-up and equipment necessary to enable a total output of approximately 60,000 wafers per month once fully ramped. In addition to new expansion initiatives in Dresden and New York, Globalfoundries is also continuing with its previously announced expansion at Fab 7 in Singapore to reach an output level of 50,000 wafers per month, an increase of nearly 50% from current levels. During the expansion, Fab 7 will continue to focus on manufacturing technologies ranging from the 65nm to 40nm technology nodes.